What Is Faith And Why Is It Important

We all exhibit faith every day and most of the time we do it without even realizing it. Think about it for a moment; you sit in a chair and never wonder if it will hold you up, you flip on a light switch and never wonder if the light is going to come on; you just have faith that it will. Why? Because it always does.

 

That, my friends, is one of the greatest golden nuggets of faith. The more you use it the easier it is to accept it as normal and therefore you use it more often. But I’ll come back to this truth a little later.

 

But, what is real Biblical faith? I’m convinced, based on over 40 years of Christian ministry experience, that most church members actually do not understand what real Biblical faith is. I’m reminded of a sermon I preached back in 1982 about faith. There was a very sweet and devout lady that lingered behind everyone else and finally came to speak to me. She said, “Pastor, do you mean to tell me that if I pray for healing and don’t get healed that I’m not praying in faith, that I’m only praying in hope, or just wishing?”. I simply responded with, “Yes”. She said, “Well I just can’t believe that”. To that I said, “Then you are saying that you don’t believe James 1:6&7 where we are told to ask in faith, with no doubt, because if we doubt don’t even think that you are going to receive from the Lord.” That’s God telling us that; it’s not me.

 

Now admittedly, that was a hard thing for her, or most of us, to hear. But isn’t that exactly what Jesus said to His disciples when He told them that they couldn’t cast the demon out because of their unbelief? And isn’t that exactly what He meant when He asked Peter why he doubted after he began to sink in the water?

 

Please listen brothers and sisters, we are not leaning on ‘our’ strength, we are talking here about accessing the very power of our Almighty God, and He requires faith. And you already know that He says that it is impossible to please Him without it!

 

So exactly what is real Biblical faith? Simply stated, it is an absolute, unwavering, and total reliance upon our Almighty God to deliver to us the answer to our prayers. Any doubt whatsoever, and all you are doing is wishing — period.

 

You don’t have to see outright miracles to exercise faith every day, but how do you grow your faith to the miracle level — as Jesus commanded us. Go back to the light switch. The more you use it, the easier it is to use with expectation. The easier it is to use, the more you will use it for bigger, even life saving things for you and your family and friends.

 

Example — last fall we had Hurricane Dorian that came in here at the beach where I live with a vengeance. At 10 pm I went to my back patio. Two next door neighbors were on their patio. We had all come out to see just how bad it had gotten. The wind was viciously howling and the battering rain was torrential. What was worrying my neighbors was the water level in our lake; it had gotten so high that it had begun to come onto our back yards. Now I don’t beat my neighbors over the head with my Bible but they know I’m a Christian. They earnestly pleaded with me to pray about the water level because the rain was so heavy and we had another 10 to 12 hours of this to go. I told them simply that I would pray. I came inside and prayed expectantly for God to protect our homes from the encroaching waters. One hour later I went back outside; the rain was still pelting us hard, but the water level had gone down about a foot. Hallelujah!

 

So, with that, I think you can begin to see the ‘why is it important’ part of my story. Our faith is to be used in our everyday lives. Big things, small things, things for others, things for our church, our communities, our country, our health, our finances, our families — everything! Why is it important? We can live our lives without fear. We can cast our cares upon Him who holds the universe, and have no worry. We can protect our families by weaving God’s protective love into the essence of their very existence. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. Use your voice to proclaim the love and power of Almighty God in your prayers with your very strong faith.

 

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